Fishmongers', and very much amused to find that you consulted
The great interest of this biography, of course, centres in the Garibaldi on Italian penny postage. When you go to Heaven,
History of the P0727by Postage, written by Sir Rowland himself, I foresee that you will stop at the gate to inquire of St. Peter and extending over nearly seven hundred pages. It is a long story , how many deliveries they have per day, and how the expense of undoubtedly, and the labours, contentions, rebuffs, and dis- postal communication between Heaven and the other place is appointments which the Hills were doomed to encounter are defrayed." The Recorder of Birmingham, witty as ho was somewhat exasperating to read; but the narrative is told well, wise, hit off in this bit of fun his brother's character to a and with scrupulous fairness ; and it is a great public advantage nicety. A dogged pursuit of his object and absorption that such a tale of trial and achievement should be placed, once therein, an enormous (though not altogether disproportioned) for all, on record, for the encouragement and instruction of all sense of its importance, and an absence of that humour which reformers and inventors, present and to conic. Nor is it only would have perceived that there are tic es and places in which even such exceptional people who ought to acquaint themselves with penny postage might be judiciously exchanged for some other the history of the Penny Postage ; but all of us who are topic of discourse,—all these characteristics seem to have been in danger of forgetting that letters and newspapers do not fall exemplified in the subjects of Mr. Birkbeck Hill's very careful on us in the morning quite like manna from heaven, nor post- and elaborate memoir. Undoubtedly, it is men of this stamp age stamps grow by nature like leaves on the trees ; nor, in who oftenest accomplish great reforms, who work at them short, the whole complicated and magnificent system of postal year after year with a perseverance and a patience which no arrangements in England in 1881—letter post, cards, news- obstacles can turn aside and no difficulties weary ; who count papers, and parcel post, money orders, registry of letters, Post no detail too small to deserve their attention, and no achieve- Office Savings Banks, millions of despatches, millions of de- ment of world-wide influence too large for their ambition, At liveries—work without any human contrivance, like the revolu- the end of all, when the great work is accomplished, and they tions of the moon and the planets. That solar system which has retire from the scene of their toils and triumphs with the infirm- its sun in St. Martin's-le-Grand is a triumph of organisation, ities of age creeping over them, and nerves worn down by half a to which the world before our generation had no parallel, and century of anxiety, worry, and contention, we may well afford the honour of creating that vast machinery and setting its them our gratitude and our sympathy ; and mourn that such wheels going belongs in a very large measure to Sir Rowland well-earned repose should be broken by having the close vicinity Hill. The Post-Office in the pre-Rowland-Hill epoch, and of such a man's home chosen for the site of a hospital for a subsequently thereto, were as different places as an old country
terrible and infectious disease. inn and a railway station,—aud the vitality generated in that The first two hundred and odd pages of this memoir are heart of our social organism has flowed out in currents of fresh life through every vein and artery of our body politic. The re- occupied by the account of the Hill family, with details, some interesting others rather trivial, of Sir Rowland's youth.
Readers of the excellent Life of Recorder Matthew Davenport mm .71ill, by his daughters, will recognise the portrait of the father his kind; and what an Englishman invented and Englishmen
of the remarkable group of young men (Sir Rowland and his brothers), Thomas Wright Hill, and his able and estimable true that time ought to be counted, not by the rising and set- wife, Sarah, to whom the sons undoubtedly owed much ting of the sun, but by the thoughts which pass through our of their strong and characteristic vitality. Three very brains, then it must be admitted that one man has done more different men, Franklin, John Gibson the sculptor, and to lengthen life's little span for his race than all the physicians Thomas Wright Hill—possibly many more unknown to the and sanitary reformers of Europe together,— and that man is present writer—are recorded to have expressed at the end of the originator of the Penny Postage.
'
• The Life of Sir Rowland Rill, and the Illetory of the Penny Pottage. By Sir
Rowland married the playmate of his childhood and the true
and extending over nearly seven hundred pages. It is a long story , how many deliveries they have per day, and how the expense of undoubtedly, and the labours, contentions, rebuffs, and dis- postal communication between Heaven and the other place is appointments which the Hills were doomed to encounter are defrayed." The Recorder of Birmingham, witty as ho was somewhat exasperating to read; but the narrative is told well, wise, hit off in this bit of fun his brother's character to a and with scrupulous fairness ; and it is a great public advantage nicety. A dogged pursuit of his object and absorption that such a tale of trial and achievement should be placed, once therein, an enormous (though not altogether disproportioned) for all, on record, for the encouragement and instruction of all sense of its importance, and an absence of that humour which reformers and inventors, present and to conic. Nor is it only would have perceived that there are tic es and places in which even such exceptional people who ought to acquaint themselves with penny postage might be judiciously exchanged for some other the history of the Penny Postage ; but all of us who are topic of discourse,—all these characteristics seem to have been in danger of forgetting that letters and newspapers do not fall exemplified in the subjects of Mr. Birkbeck Hill's very careful on us in the morning quite like manna from heaven, nor post- and elaborate memoir. Undoubtedly, it is men of this stamp age stamps grow by nature like leaves on the trees ; nor, in who oftenest accomplish great reforms, who work at them short, the whole complicated and magnificent system of postal year after year with a perseverance and a patience which no arrangements in England in 1881—letter post, cards, news- obstacles can turn aside and no difficulties weary ; who count papers, and parcel post, money orders, registry of letters, Post no detail too small to deserve their attention, and no achieve- Office Savings Banks, millions of despatches, millions of de- ment of world-wide influence too large for their ambition, At liveries—work without any human contrivance, like the revolu- the end of all, when the great work is accomplished, and they tions of the moon and the planets. That solar system which has retire from the scene of their toils and triumphs with the infirm- its sun in St. Martin's-le-Grand is a triumph of organisation, ities of age creeping over them, and nerves worn down by half a to which the world before our generation had no parallel, and century of anxiety, worry, and contention, we may well afford the honour of creating that vast machinery and setting its them our gratitude and our sympathy ; and mourn that such wheels going belongs in a very large measure to Sir Rowland well-earned repose should be broken by having the close vicinity Hill. The Post-Office in the pre-Rowland-Hill epoch, and of such a man's home chosen for the site of a hospital for a subsequently thereto, were as different places as an old country
terrible and infectious disease. inn and a railway station,—aud the vitality generated in that The first two hundred and odd pages of this memoir are heart of our social organism has flowed out in currents of fresh life through every vein and artery of our body politic. The re- occupied by the account of the Hill family, with details, some motest Briton in the empire is warmed in heart and quickened. in intellect by the influx and efflux of easy communication with
.71ill, by his daughters, will recognise the portrait of the father his kind; and what an Englishman invented and Englishmen
enjoy, the world has copied and profits by likewise. If it be true that time ought to be counted, not by the rising and set- wife, Sarah, to whom the sons undoubtedly owed much ting of the sun, but by the thoughts which pass through our of their strong and characteristic vitality. Three very brains, then it must be admitted that one man has done more different men, Franklin, John Gibson the sculptor, and to lengthen life's little span for his race than all the physicians Thomas Wright Hill—possibly many more unknown to the and sanitary reformers of Europe together,— and that man is present writer—are recorded to have expressed at the end of the originator of the Penny Postage. their long sojourns upon earth a desire, not merely to be given We cannot conclude without quoting one little anecdote of Sir another chance of living better, but actually to be per- Rowland Hill's latter days, as being, though a small affair, very nutted to live day per day their whole lives over again. This significant of the spirit of justice which ruled his whole career; cheorful-minded old gentleman was a convert, made so by It seems that one day his little grandchildren noticed that he had Priestley, to orthodox Unitarianism, but his son Rowland only given the pet dog of the family a slight blow with a switch. acknowledged indebtedness to that unsatisfactory divine ou So astonishing was this behaviour ou the part of Sir Rowland the side of politics and science. Indeed, this whole memoir is that the boys could not rest silent, but with a confidence reticent on the matter of the religious views and feelings of its of which any parents in the world might be proud, they subject, to a degree which recalls the era of the Edgeworths, returned to the drawing-room after being dismissed for wherein Sir Rowland Hill's life began, rather than that of ours, the night, and, holding each other by the hand, demanded', when it came to a close. The blank is much to be deplored, for in a tone of deep solemnity, " Grandpapa, why did you boundless as are our modern scepticisms wo can hardly form beat Trottie P" The old man, we are told, was delighted a distinct image of an Englishman of our generation who with the children's courage iu thus calling him to account, and should be always and wholly unaffected, one way or another, bringing the lads close to him, he explained that to them he by religion, and over whom that magnetism of the soul should could tell in words that they must not disturb him, but that he exercise neither attraction nor repulsion, Sir Rowland Hill led was obliged gently to remind Trottie with the switch that she ----- ______ ____ was forbidden to bark and make his head ache ! All the worries
Rowland Bill and hie Nephew, George Micheal Rill, ,I).0.L. 2 vole. London: and cares of his lifetime, it is obvious, had neither spoiled Sir Do la Rue and Co. 1880. Rowland's temper, nor made him one whit more despotic than
he had been in his enthusiastic youth, when he gave his "con- stitution " to the boys of Hazelwood. Another story, not to be found in these excellent and solid Memoirs, but narrated by a relative to whom Sir Rowland showed a newspaper containing the report of the occurrence, must close this review. Sir Rowland, it appears, was no friend of halfpenny post-cards, and disapproved of their introduction (which took place when he had left the Post-office), on the ground that they cost the Department in collection and delivery more than their price, and occasioned a loss of nearly a farthing on each. This being the state of the case, he was infinitely amused to learn that certain spiritualists—who supposed him to be dead, having beard nothing of him for several years—had been rapping up his ghost ; and that the "spirit," having duly announced himself as "the late Sir Rowland Hill," proceeded to give his opinion " that post-cards were the greatest boon ever conferred upon the public
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